Posts Tagged ‘vaccines’

Last year, when I was pregnant, I signed up for a flu shot through my employer. I put a note on the form saying I was pregnant and could you make sure to provide the shot for pregnant women instead of the standard shot, please. I got to my appointment with the Public Health Nurse and she didn’t have it. So I didn’t get the shot.

I’m fairly certain I got the flu. It was miserable. Darren was about 10 minutes away from hauling me to emerg when my fever broke. I missed over a week of work.

Last week, Darren had some sort of illness and didn’t go to work. He had all the symptoms of the H1N1 flu. The Poptart and I seem to have escaped it.

So on Monday, I go to the doctor to get my H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. I fall into one of those priority categories at the moment – a caregiver of a child under 6 months of age. The Poptart will be 6 months old on November 17. On November 24, she gets her 6 month needles.

And therein lies the issue. The original thought was that I would get the flu vaccines, produce antibodies (hopefully) and pass them on to the Poptart by breastfeeding.

Well, it seems the antibodies don’t transfer well through breastfeeding. And its only 80% effective; I may be part of the 20% of the population that doesn’t react to the vaccine.

So we’re leaning towards delaying the 6 month vaccines and getting her an H1N1 vaccine instead, and possibly a seasonal flu vaccine as well.

Leaning. Not 100% convinced yet. Mainly because we don’t understand what happens at the 6 month mark that suddenly makes this vaccine okay for babies.

So questions for the doctor on Monday:

should she get the H1N1 vaccine? should she get the seasonal flu vaccine?

should we postpone the 6 month needles to give her the flu vaccine(s)?

What happens at 6 months that makes the vaccine okay?

On the one hand, I’m kind of leery of giving her more needles than what she needs. On the other hand, I’d feel really terrible and guilty if she got sick and I didn’t do everything I could to protect her.

caregivers of children under 6 months of age or people with compromised immune systems

children aged 6 months to 5 years

And are sneaking in line and lying about one of the above to get an H1N1 shot early.

You suck. You taking that vaccine means that someone who has a greater chance of getting seriously sick or dying from H1N1 goes without. That’s pretty sucky of you. Instead, I offer the following suggestions: wash your hands, carry hand sanitizer, take your vitamins and be patient.

That is all.

Halloween post to come later. I just had to get this off my chest.

Edited to add: As of this evening, Alberta has shut down its flu clinics, except for target groups. If you queue jump in that case, you’ve escalated from being merely sucky to douchebaggery.